Eulogy for Father :: Eulogies Eulogy

Eulogy for FatherI stand before you today to pay my last respects, and to say my terminal goodbyes, to my father Harry.I have to admit at the outset that it is very(prenominal) difficult to do this. The difficulty is not righteous due to the open causes -- the sadness, the grief, and the sense of loss. Nor is it due to the confrontation with death in its utter finality, and the resulting consternation regarding ones own mortality.No, this is difficult for me primarily because of all of the unfinished business that I have with my father. And while a part of me continues to nurture the hope that, had he lived longer, I would have been able to finish my business, I have to complete that this is not true.Because, the fact is, it is very hard for sons to ever attain a in reality clear perspective on their own fathers.I know this to be true from my 20 years of experience as a psychologist whose central interest has been fatherhood.In the Fatherhood Course that I teach, this come f orward of son-father business usually comes up in the first class. We might be talking about why the men decided to enroll in the course, and after a few guys give the standard reasons, and others make near quips, the mood palpably shifts to serious as one father speaks, tear down lip quivering You want to know why I am here? Ill tell you why I am here. I am here so that my little son Timmy will not thumb as bad about me when hes grown up as I do about my own dad. The mans words hit the room uniform a hurricane, and soon the theme of father son business is on every mans lips. The fathers then become sons and talk about the grief, pain and rancour they feel toward their own fathers. Lets go into the classroom now, so that you can catch these mens voicesI neer know what my father thought. He just would never talk about himself.I know he love us because he was a good provider. He worked two jobs in order to put all five of us though parochial school and several of us though col lege. But I never knew if he liked me.To this day I wonder what he really thinks of me. Is he proud of me?Every time I call home, pop answers the phone, and it usually goes like this Hi.